Category: Golf

• Fitzpatrick wins DP World Tour Championship in playoff

• McIlroy now one behind record for season-long crowns

An emotional Rory McIlroy hailed surpassing Seve Ballesteros by winning a seventh Race to Dubai title as more than he ever dreamed of. McIlroy lost in a playoff against Matt Fitzpatrick in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, having staged a dramatic late fightback with an eagle at the 72nd hole.

While his Ryder Cup teammate celebrated a third win in the event, the Northern Irishman clinched the season-long crown to eclipse the late Ballesteros’s tally of six and move one behind record-holder, Colin Montgomerie. McIlroy told Sky Sports: “It’s amazing, I had a conversation with Carmen [Ballesteros’s ex-wife] before I went out to play today and she told me how proud he would have been.

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• Trump opens LPGA career with 13-over 83

• Day’s biggest gallery trails debutante

• Sorenstam defends controversial invite

Kai Trump, the US president’s granddaughter and the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr, opened her LPGA career with a 13-over-par 83 on Thursday at The Annika, a debut round that left her at the bottom of the leaderboard and underscored the chasm between elite junior golf and a field stacked with the sport’s top professionals.

The 18-year-old amateur, playing on a much-discussed sponsor’s exemption, began her round on the back nine alongside former major champion Hinako Shibuno and Germany’s Olivia Cowan. She received warm applause when her name was announced on the par-4 10th tee and again after she drove it safely into the fairway, one of the few calm moments in a jittery start.

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• Rai wins on first playoff hole with eight-foot birdie

• Rory McIlroy third after record final round of 62

Aaron Rai held his nerve to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Sunday, beating Tommy Fleetwood on the first playoff hole after a dramatic final day.

The 30-year-old sunk a birdie from just over eight feet to seal victory, emulating his only previous Rolex Series win. That came at the 2020 Scottish Open, and was also a playoff victory over Fleetwood.

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• McIlroy received apology over fan abuse

• Eyes Dubai finale after ‘amazing 10 months’

• Calls LIV’s 72-hole shift ‘peculiar’ move

Rory McIlroy says PGA of America chief executive Derek Sprague personally apologized for the abuse directed at him and his wife during Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black and that the gesture helped close the book on what had been a bruising week.

“I got a lovely e-mail from Derek Sprague apologizing,” McIlroy told BBC Sport ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “Erica worked with Derek at the PGA of America back in the day, so we know Derek and his wife pretty well. He couldn’t have been more gracious or apologetic and he wrote us a lovely letter, which we really appreciated.”

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• Tour’s name partly based on Roman numeral reference

• Leading players want better preparation for majors

LIV Golf has surprisingly backtracked on one of its founding principles by announcing tournaments in the fourth season of the Saudi Arabian-backed league will be played over 72 holes. Until now, LIV has proudly operated over 54 holes and three days, with the name itself partly based on a Roman numeral reference point. Could a rebrand to LXXII be imminent?

The dramatic shift, which is believed to have come after pressure from players, means LIV will soon mirror the schedule traditional golf tours it once tried to upstage. LIV will, however, continue to run both individual and team competition elements.

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• Teenager receives sponsor exemption for the Annika

• Kai Trump, 18, is due to play college golf at Miami

Donald Trump’s granddaughter will be taking a detour on her way to playing college golf at the University of Miami – Kai Trump will make her LPGA Tour debut next month.

The 18-year-old received a sponsor exemption on Tuesday to play in the Annika at Pelican Golf Club from 13-16 November, the penultimate event on the LPGA schedule. The tournament, which has a prize purse of $3.25m (£2.45m), is prestigious and typically has one of the strongest fields of the year outside the majors. Nelly Korda is the defending champion.

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• Jury rules Nicklaus defamed by former company

• False claims tied him to $750m LIV Golf offer

• 85-year-old legend awarded $50m in damages

Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, has won a $50m verdict in a defamation case against his former company, bringing an end to one of golf’s most bitter business feuds.

A jury in Palm Beach County, Florida, found that Nicklaus Companies – the firm he founded and later sold – defamed him by spreading false claims that he had considered a $750m offer to become a public face of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League and that he was no longer mentally fit to manage his business affairs. The six-person jury ruled that the company’s actions damaged the 85-year-old’s reputation and exposed him to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust, distrust or contempt”.

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• World No 5 secures two-shot victory after final round 65

• Fleetwood says son Frankie’s suggestion spurred him on

Tommy Fleetwood held off Japan’s Keita Nakajima to secure a two-shot victory in the DP World India Championship – and celebrated an eighth DP Tour win with son Frankie on the 18th green.

Fleetwood, who had ended his long wait for a first PGA Tour title at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup in August, produced a superb seven-under final round of 65 to finish at 22-under in Delhi.

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• Focus on unruly fans ‘is obscuring Europe’s performance’

• ‘I’d like to shift the narrative,’ says Northern Irishman

Rory McIlroy is eager to shift discussion of last month’s Ryder Cup from the dominant theme of unruly spectators to the “incredible” strength of Europe’s display.

Luke Donald and his European team secured back-to-back Ryder Cup wins after reaching what ultimately proved an unassailable position within two of the event’s three days.

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• Woods has lumbar disc replaced in New York

• 15-time major winner calls operation successful

• No timetable set for 49-year-old’s golf return

Tiger Woods has announced that he underwent back surgery on Friday to address a collapsed disc in his spine.

The 15-time major winner had lumbar disk replacement surgery after he experienced pain in his lower back and said on social media that the operation was deemed successful, although it is unknown when the 49-year-old will return to golf.

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• US golfer admits home fans ‘crossed the line’ with abuse

• Morikawa says he did not intend fans to get out of hand

Collin Morikawa admits the behaviour of American fans at the Ryder Cup “crossed the line” but he denies he was partly to blame for inflaming the atmosphere.

Two days before the event started at Bethpage in New York, the two-time major winner said he hoped the opening day was “absolute chaos”.

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• Don Rea Jr writes letter to organization’s members

• European players and wives were verbally abused

The president of the PGA of America, who had initially dismissed abuse directed at Europe’s players during this year’s Ryder Cup as no worse than at “a youth soccer game”, has issued an apology.

“Let me begin with what we must own. While the competition was spirited – especially with the US team’s rally on Sunday afternoon – some fan behavior clearly crossed the line,” Don Rea Jr wrote in an email to PGA of America members. “It was disrespectful, inappropriate, and not representative of who we are as the PGA of America or as PGA of America golf professionals. We condemn that behavior unequivocally.”

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After Europe held off an amazing comeback from the USA to triumph 15-13 and retain the Ryder Cup, we bring you some of our favourite images from three days of excitement at Bethpage

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From Shane Lowry’s victory jig to the emergence of a new US star, our team’s picks from an electrifying weekend

Player of the tournament Viktor Hovland. Well, that was a significant half-point on day three … No, seriously, the award belongs to Tommy Fleetwood. Singles defeat should not mask his overall performance. Surely a major winner in waiting.

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